Meat Joy embodies Schneemann’s concept of “kinetic theater,” in which performers engage in scored and improvised movements with a range of disparate materials. Eight performers— including Schneemann—covered in paint, paper, and paint brushes crawled and writhed together, playing with raw fish, meat, and poultry. According to the artist, by using the naked body as a material for art she “exposed and confronted a social range of current cultural taboos and repressive conventions.” To make this film, Schneemann combined footage from performances of Meat Joy in Paris and New York and set it to pop music, transforming a live work into a cinematic assemblage of twisting bodies with a soundtrack.
Gallery label from Judson Dance Theater: The Work Is Never Done, 2018